Contingencies
by whomii2
Summary: How the aftermath of Number Crunch, The Crossing, and Return 0 might have gone differently...
1. Chapter 1 Number Crunch

Finch glanced anxiously in the rearview mirror as he sped along in the darkness. He hadn't heard a sound or detected movement from the back seat for it seemed quite some time. And considering his hurried passage made this a less than gentle ride that lack was rather ominous. John had been so pale and there had been so much blood even before he had gotten him in the car…

"Never mind that" Finch chided himself. "Just get to the destination. Everything can be dealt with there"

Finch kept reminding himself that he had envisioned such a situation and had taken steps accordingly.

For the man and Machine charged with spotting a single terrorist from an entire world's population, discerning the presence of a secret government agency from the patterns surrounding it was a relatively simple task. And once it's existence was known, gaining access to all that agencies' other secrets was child's play. Finch was both amazed and horrified by some of the reports he uncovered, but realized this explained some of the more anomalous predictions the Machine had provided from time to time. Still, the agency in question seemed to be doing a better than to be expected job of handling the situations it was tasked with, so Finch took a primarily watch and wait attitude toward it. With the notable exceptions of a few technological advances reported among the agencies findings…

One of the most extraordinary of which was the goal toward which he pressed. Of course its description had caught his eye-how could it not?-and of course he agreed for the most part on the caution and restrictions surrounding its use. This was truly a case where advanced science was almost indistinguishable from magic. But for everything there is an exception, and Finch found John to be a notable exception. So when Finch had discovered the object was to be moved he made careful plans to have it taken and an inactive duplicate substituted while it was en route between the mountain and area 51.

He turned on his high beams as he approached his destination. Although he had only been to the structure once, he found his way to it unerringly. He removed the padlock and leaned his weight against the door to force it open. He placed a lit lantern inside and then went back to the car for John. Reese's body was stiff and unwieldy as Harold tried to remove it from the car. Finch was forced to drag it inside, and he winced at each bump and scrape along the way. Fortunately John was in no condition to complain of the rough treatment. Once he had it inside, Finch spent several minutes heaving it into the waiting receptacle. Mission accomplished, Finch closed the lid and leaned against it, trying to catch his breath while he tried to plan his next move.

While Finch had promised never to lie to John, he had never said he would tell him everything. But there was no way John would take his miraculous recovery from 2 gunshot wounds without question. Especially if he woke up in a glowing sarcophagus in an anonymous crypt in a small cemetery….

Finch pondered the best way to handle the situation, and mourned for the thousandth time that Ingram had been cremated and his ashes dispersed before Finch had access to the sarcophagus...

 _*(for those unfamiliar with the Stargate series, the Sarcophagi were alien devices capable of healing almost any wound and even resurrecting the dead.)_


	2. Chapter 2 The Crossing

Finch had been, quite frankly, overwhelmed.

Too much had happened too fast, and Finch was just trying desperately to hold things together.

He had frozen in shock at the gunshots. When he finally got himself moving and across the street it was clear there was little that could be done for Carter at that time. It was all he could do to pry Reese away from her and get him into the car before they were surrounded by officers responding to the gunshots outside the precinct. Then it was a matter of seeing Reese's wounds healed. When John was finally stabilized and Harold thought that he could regroup for a moment, his world turned on its head again when Reese left.

Harold would have liked to respect John's privacy at this time, but he knew Reese didn't handle grief well, and considering the risks John was willing to take under more normal circumstances Finch was afraid of what might happen. So he sent Fusco after Reese, knowing the detective would be glad of the distraction from thinking of his partner's death.

Besides, Ms. Shaw was more suited to do what he needed.

Under other circumstances her expression when he made his request might have been quite comical. She gave him a hard and searching look, and must have seen something in his face to let her know that this was no joke but a deadly serious matter.

So a short time later Shaw was passing Finch the keys to a station wagon, and Harold drove slowly to a cemetery he had not been to in a while and had hoped to never see again. He was careful not to be followed and not to attract the attention of any law enforcement, as explaining the corpse in the back of the car could be rather difficult.

* * *

Carter was stunned and disoriented after her revivification, and Finch made sure to get her in the car and on their way as quickly as possible before she could take too much note of their surroundings. Of course Carter had a number of questions, and Finch tried to satisfy her without going into too much detail – knowledge of the sarcophagus was even more explosive and potentially deadly than knowledge of the Machine. She was a bit incredulous, and would have doubted such a story even from Finch except her own extraordinary existence confirmed it was all too likely to be true.

Shaw was visibly stunned when they made it to the safe house. As a doctor she was fully aware that Carter's condition was no sham and should have been permanent. She just stood there gaping until Finch broke the spell by asking her to find some more suitable clothing for the detective (Harold couldn't believe he had made such an oversight, but he had had a lot on his mind at the time). Shaw choked out "good to see you back" before scurrying off to find some clothes.

Once Carter was dressed and had a hot meal and a stiff drink, they decided their next move was to get their wayward companions home. It seemed prudent for Carter to be out of the city until the publicity over her shooting and the loss of her body (Harold's cover story was that the morgue had inadvertently sent the wrong body off to a funeral home and it had been cremated before the error was detected) died down a bit. So she and Shaw were shortly on their way in a jet piloted by Finch.

Carter might have known the two rascals would land themselves in trouble, although it was a rather ingenious method for Fusco to keep an eye on Reese. Both of them were not at their best when she entered their cell, and both were probably wondering if she was but a hallucination from too much booze or a stiff blow to the head. Reese's doubts were set to rest when she walked up and slapped him across the face, growling "What the hell were you thinking?" He didn't know how this was possible, and didn't care how pissed she was at him, all he cared was that she wasn't gone and he hadn't lost her. Her tirade was cut short with an "umf" when he reached out and clutched her warm breathing body to himself, afraid to let go or to find out that it was all a dream from which he would awake to the nightmare of her gone. They were pressed even tighter together when Fusco decided he wanted in on the action and enveloped them both in a giant bear-hug. For several minutes they just stayed like that, until Fusco let go to wipe some suspicious moisture from his eyes. John's eyes were also rather shiny, but he had a smile on his face even larger than Lionel's. A harrumph from Shaw drew their attention, and her "We should be going" got them moving out to where Finch was waiting in the rented car.

A short flight later and the team was finally all together and back home in the safe house. The joy at the reunion faded slightly at the logistical issues before them. Carter's death had been too public, too well documented, and observed by too many people who could attest that it was real for it to be passed off as a mistake or a ruse. Her reappearance would spark too many questions, and there was no telling what unscrupulous people might do to try and ferret out the secret to her miraculous recovery. So it was decided that she would need to stay dead, and go into hiding under a new identity. Fortunately she had friends who were quite expert at creating new personas. Her grieving family could be put in contact with her once her and their new identities were well established.

Although the team would be sad to part with her, it was for the best as she and her family would be much safer that way.


	3. Chapter 3 Return 0

So much to do, so very little time.

It was good that Harold was enjoying a much closer working relationship with the Machine. And that the Machine had gone on a recruiting spree.

It meant that Harold could move forward with his plans while someone else made the necessary...acquisition. The morgue and the cemetery were both too likely to be under surveillance by Samaritan. That left a switch performed during transport. Some cash in the right hands, a transfer out of sight under a bridge, and Root's body was spirited away. Transporting her corpse to the Sarcophagus would be tricky though, as an ice cream truck would certainly look out of place at a cemetery. She would have to remain in the freezer until Harold could think of a way to take her without attracting notice. Dire as their situation was, it would be infinitely worse if the Sarcophagus fell into the hands of their enemy. And it would have to be Harold who took her on that final journey, because he couldn't risk anyone else seeing the Sarcophagus, even if they didn't know what it could do.

The release of the virus provided Harold with his chance. The ensuing chaos caused a great enough distraction that Harold could sneak away to the cemetery in a car with sufficient trunk space. At least this time he had remembered to bring a change of clothes for the subject as well!

Harold hoped that the extent of Root's injuries and the delay in getting to the Sarcophagus wouldn't affect its performance. He didn't understand how or why it worked, so he was always concerned that it might fail at a crucial moment. As he lay Root to rest within the device he could only pray the outcome would be favorable. But he couldn't afford to wait to see the result. There was one final Samaritan backup copy that would need to be dealt with in order to ensure their victory.

Fortunately the Machine had kept an eye on the others while Harold was busy with Root. He felt it best not to raise their hopes in case the revivification failed and so made no mention of where he had been when he met them on the dock. Soon they had split off on what might be their final missions.

* * *

As he staggered off the roof, suffering from a gunshot wound and the heartbreaking sacrifice of his best friend, Harold thought that his secrecy might have been a mistake. He hoped that he could make it back to Root before it was too late. If he succumbed to his injuries there would be no one to remove her, and she would slumber on in the Sarcophagus forever. Perhaps Harold should have sought a discrete medical facility for himself before seeing to Root, but the only thing on his mind was to not let another member of his team slip away.

He didn't know how he made it back to the cemetery. Its core systems failing, there was no Machine to act as driver this time. But somehow he found himself leaning against the Sarcophagus, smearing it with his blood as he opened the lid. At first he thought it had all been in vain, but then he sagged against the side of the Sarcophagus as Root 's eyelids slowly fluttered open.

..."Harry?"

"So glad you could...rejoin us ...Miss Groves"

She sat up, looking around in confusion. "How...where...I was dead. Am I still...what happened?"

"Seems your death was...a little premature. And not so ...final. Not with this ...device. It heals...even fatal injuries."

With that Finch's strength finally gave out and he slumped down to a sitting position with his back resting against the sarcophagus.

"Harold!" Root cried out in alarm, gathering the sheet around herself before exiting the Sarcophagus and crouching by Harold's side. She was alarmed by his palor and shocked by all the blood that had soaked into his suit from the bullet wound in his side.

"Harold you're hurt. Will this device help you?"

"John...needs it. Sacrificed ...himself. Should have...been me...The missile..." but the blood loss and all the exertion had finally taken its toll on Finch.

Grimly Root decided that Harold would be her immediate priority. She wrestled him into the Sarcophagus, closing the lid and hoping nothing else was needed to activate the device. Next step would be seeing to any of their fallen comrades. She took stock of her surroundings and spotted a shopping bag with some clothes for her. A quick change and she was ready to start looking for the vehicle Finch had used to get here. But first she placed a hand on lid of the Sarcophagus.

"You never cease to amaze me Harold. You saved me. You changed me. And now you brought me back. Rest for now. I'll see you get what you need."

And with that final word she exited the mausoleum and headed off into the night.

* * *

When Harold blinked awake he was disoriented. What had happened? As the face of the woman hovering over him sharpened into focus he muttered "Root?" unsure if it was Miss Groves or the personification of the Machine.

"Welcome back Harry. Your little nap seems to have done you a world of good. Now if you can step out and give me a hand, the big lug is kindof unweildy."

"John!" Harold exclaimed as he scrambled out of the Sarcophagus and headed to the black body bag lying against the wall of the mausoleum. But Root's hand on his shoulder stopped him before he could look inside.

"Don't. You don't need to see."

"But..."

"Trust me Harold. It will be ok."

Harold nodded, unable to speak around the lump in his throat. They carefully lifted the bag and laid it gently to rest in the Sarcophagus. They closed the lid and after a moment of silence Harold asked: "The others?"

"Lionel was hurt but is going to pull through. The woman who dropped him off at the hospital must have been Shaw... I didn't make contact yet. I wasn't sure how to explain. But I haven't heard from the Machine. Guess this handy device won't help us with her."

"I wouldn't count her out just yet Miss Groves. My creation had her own contingency plan. It just may take a little while."

"So what do we do now?"

"Tie up some loose ends. Reunite with our friends. We've just saved the world, I think we've earned a little vacation. After that...who knows?"


End file.
